Fintech is the fusion of finance and technology and the driving force behind developments in areas such as the Blockchain, AI chatbots and personal banking. The majority of transactions we make everyday are minuscule so emergence of a secure and frictionless system unrestricted by borders or political regulations isn’t hard to imagine. Most of the money in the world is digital so we can think of everything from stocks to assets as bits of information. This information ‘lives’ on the internet and can be easily traded or exchanged in the same way you trade money for a pint of beer at the pub.

The amount of information on the internet is going to grow exponentially over the coming years and access, appropriation or sale of this information is going to become crucial. If you’re a content creator like myself it’s important to get fair compensation for your work and its future use. By assigning a value to each bit of information we can shift into a completely new economy. This virtual goods and assets economy will be backed up by an encrypted database that’s distributed around the world making it more secure than the systems in use today.

Say hello to the Blockchain. Blockchain is a way to rapidly exchange digital assets — such as payments, photos, contracts — between two or more parties in a secure, verifiable and auditable process that doesn’t require a middleman. Each party in the network has its own copy of the blockchain attached to every asset. As long as the chains are in sync, all parties can be confident that the asset or transaction is valid.

With regard to fintech, the blockchain and beyond we’re still in the very early stages. There’s a huge gap between political and technical feasibility but as tech gets better and cheaper and our access and understanding of new information improves we’re sure to enter new grounds.